China Civilian Nuclear Industry, Technology, Exports and Supply Chain: News & Discussions

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World's second EPR nuclear reactor starts work in China
Date created : 29/05/2019 - 11:00

The two EPR reactors at the Taishan nuclear power plant will be the most powerful in the world when fully completed and can supply five million Chinese users, its owners say AFP/File

Paris (AFP)

A next-generation EPR nuclear reactor in China has carried out its first chain reaction, French energy giant EDF announced Wednesday, becoming the second using the much-delayed European technology to reach the milestone.

The fission reaction at the Taishan 2 reactor on Tuesday follows the Taishan 1 becoming last year the first of its kind to advance to the operational stage.

"The nuclear reaction was authorised and yesterday the Chinese reactor carried out a fission reaction for the first time," EDF chairman and CEO Jean-Bernard Levy told Europe 1 radio on Wednesday.

EDF, which helped design the European Pressurised Reactor (EPR), is a minority shareholder in the Taishan project, which is a joint venture with China's state-run CGN and regional Chinese utility Yuedian.

The first nuclear fuel was loaded into the Taishan 2 reactor in early May in the southern Chinese province of Guangdong.

Levy said that Taishan 1, which in December became the first EPR to enter into commercial service, was "working very well".

The two EPR reactors at the Taishan nuclear power plant will be the most powerful in the world when fully completed and will be able to supply five million Chinese users, the companies have said.

EPR reactors -- which use a pressurised water design -- promise advances in safety and efficiency over conventional reactors while producing less waste.

But EDF has faced serious problems rolling out the technology and has managed to sell just a handful of the reactors as construction problems piled up.

EDF has been building an EPR reactor at Flamanville along the Atlantic coast of northwest France. It was originally set to go online in 2012 but the project has been plagued by technical problems and budget overruns.

Levy acknowledged that the "difficulty" of the Flamanville project had been "underestimated."

French President Emmanuel Macron has asked EDF to study the feasibility of building more next-generation EPR nuclear reactors in the country, but will wait until 2021 before deciding whether to proceed with construction.

? 2019 AFP


https://www.france24.com/en/20190529-worlds-second-epr-nuclear-reactor-starts-work-china

Second EPR at China's Taishan site connected to grid
28 June 2019

Unit 2 of the Taishan nuclear power plant in China's Guangdong province has been connected to the electricity grid, becoming the second EPR reactor to reach the commissioning milestone after Taishan 1. Unit 2 is expected to enter commercial operation later this year.

Taishan units 1 and 2 (Image: TNPJVC)​

The Taishan project - 140 kilometres west of Hong Kong - is owned by the Guangdong Taishan Nuclear Power Joint Venture Company Limited (TNPJVC), a joint venture between EDF (30%) and China General Nuclear (CGN). Unit 1 of the power plant started construction in 2009, followed by unit 2 in 2010. These two units are the third and fourth EPR units under construction globally. The EPR design adopted in Taishan was developed by Framatome.

On Twitter, Framatome said the grid connection of Taishan 2 earlier this week "is recognition of our technological expertise in the commissioning of EPR reactors". It added, "Taishan 2 will soon be providing electricity for hundreds of thousands of Chinese homes."

Taishan 1 and 2 are the third and fourth EPR units under construction globally, after the Olkiluoto 3 project in Finland and the Flamanville 3 project in France. Two EPR units are also under construction at the Hinkley Point C project in Somerset, UK.

Taishan 1 achieved first criticality on 6 June last year and was connected to the grid on 29 June. It was declared to be in commercial operation on 13 December.

The loading of fuel into the core of unit 2 began in May this year and it attained a sustained chain reaction for the first time on 28 May.

Fuel is expected to be loaded into the first-of-a-kind EPR at Olkiluoto in the coming months, with the start of regular electricity generation scheduled for 2020.

The loading of fuel into the core of the Flamanville EPR in France was expected towards the end of this year but earlier this month EDF said start-up of the unit may be delayed until the end of 2022 because of necessary repairs to welds in its primary circuit.

Researched and written by World Nuclear News

http://www.world-nuclear-news.org/A...hina-s-Taishan-site-connected-to-gr?feed=feed

 

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EAST Team Reveals Formation Mechanism of High-performance Steady-state Plasmas with Grassy ELMs
Jul 09, 2019

EAST team has achieved a reproducible stationary Grassy ELMy high-confinement regime with intrinsic small Grassy ELMs in their recent experiments on the Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (or EAST). And they pushed their work further to reveal the formation mechanism of this Grassy ELMy high-confinement regime.

Their work was published in Physical Review Letter.

The Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (or EAST), projected for a fusion reactor, is a complex and huge machine with a metal wall and low plasma rotation.

Edge Localized Modes (ELMs) are periodic disturbances of the plasma edge pedestal occurring in tokamaks with high confinement (H-mode) plasmas. A large ELM likes a solar flare and occurs routinely with sudden release of a fraction of the pedestal stored energy on short time scales. The high heat fluxes as a result, however, may cause intolerable heat load particularly onto the divertor target plates or first wall in next step devices like ITER.

To tackle the challenge, fusion scientists are trying to find ways to mitigate their effects, either avoiding them by intrinsic small ELM regime with good energy confinements. The Chinese EAST team have made enormous efforts to address the problem.

Through a large number of experiments, they conducted on the EAST machine, they realized a reproducible stationary Grassy ELMy high-confinement regime with intrinsic small Grassy ELMs and they further uncovered the formation mechanism behind it.

The team found that this Grassy ELMy high-performance regime was enabled by a wide edge transport barrier with a low-density gradient and a high-density ratio between the pedestal foot and top. Nonlinear simulations revealed, for the first time, that the underlying mechanism for the observed small ELM crashes was the upper movement of the peeling boundary induced by an initial radially localized collapse in the pedestal, which stopped the growth of instabilities and further collapse of the pedestal.

In addition, the EAST experiments showed that Grassy ELMy regime was compatible with the special requirements of future steady-state fusion reactors e.g. radiation divertor, high density, high bootstrap current fraction, and fully non-inductive drive.

Moreover, the grassy ELMy regime was found to have a strong impurity exhaust ability and was particularly suitable for long-pulse steady-state operation of high performance plasma.

This Grassy ELMy regime provides a potential new solution for solving the transient heat load bottleneck problem of the fusion reactor and realizing the steady state operation of the fusion reactor.

China is now carrying out integrated engineering design of China fusion engineering test reactor, or CFETR, with fusion power of 1GW. The plasma partially normalized parameters of this operation mode are close to the design parameters of CFETR and it is expected to be applied to the steady operation of CFETR in the future.

According to the team, the next goal of EAST is to achieve a steady-state high-confinement plasma operation on a time scale of the ITER baseline H-mode at higher input power. The ELM transient thermal load problem under high input power has become a major obstacle to the realization of this scientific goal. The acquisition of Grassy ELM high-performance steady-state operation mode and the breakthrough in understanding the grassy ELM physics mechanism warrant EAST to achieve even higher power and longer pulse discharge experiments, which in turn lays the physical foundation for the development of the steady state operation mode of ITER and CFETR in a high performance Grassy ELM regime.

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Experimental demonstration of a high-performance steady-state Grassy ELMy H-mode discharge on EAST (Image by the EAST Team)

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The movement of the peeling-ballooning instability boundary during the evolution of the pedestal profiles predicted by BOUT++ and ELITE code. (Image by the EAST Team)



EAST Team Reveals Formation Mechanism of High-performance Steady-state Plasmas with Grassy ELMs---Chinese Academy of Sciences

G. S. Xu, Q. Q. Yang, N. Yan, Y. F. Wang, X. Q. Xu, H. Y. Guo, R. Maingi, L. Wang, J. P. Qian, X. Z. Gong, V. S. Chan, T. Zhang, Q. Zang, Y. Y. Li, L. Zhang, G. H. Hu, B. N. Wan. Promising High-Confinement Regime for Steady-State Fusion. Phys. Rev. Lett. (2019). DOI: 10.1103/physrevlett.122.255001​

 

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What trade war? How China and US bonded over soccer and a nuclear ‘man-made sun’ | South China Morning Post

• Fusion energy can be controlled more effectively after latest breakthrough in the two countries’ joint effort
• Lead scientist on Chinese side hails decades-long collaboration and says trade war ‘has not affected us at all’

Stephen Chen
Published: 11:00am, 12 Jul, 2019

At a time when growing US-China tensions on trade-related issues have created complications for scientific research, teams of physicists from the two countries are putting such rivalries aside to develop the clean energy of the future.

Whereas some Chinese scientists are experiencing greater difficulty in getting a US visa and Washington is banning the transfer of many technologies to China, fusion – a power source often referred to as man-made sun – has brought the two sides together.

Teams from both countries are working together to make significant progress in controlling fusion’s considerable power, as well as playing soccer together, according to scientists involved.

The world’s two largest economies are major contributors of knowledge and finance for the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER), the world’s first fusion reactor, which is under construction in Europe.

The Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak device in Hefei’s facility for research on “artificial sun”. Photo: Handout

Both countries are considering building industrial-scale prototype reactors to test the applications of fusion – power generated by blending hydrogen atoms in plasma, an extremely hot gas, in a chamber 10 times hotter than the core of the sun.

And now, for the first time, Chinese and American physicists have managed to confine plasma in a powerful magnetic field and prevent it escaping, according to a paper they published in the latest issue of journal Physical Review Letters.

This could solve a major problem in the construction of fusion reactors, which could use the technology to produce an endless supply of clean energy.

Occasionally the hot gas can erupt and break free from its magnetic prison, which would cause severe damage to a reactor.

At the Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (EAST) facility in Hefei, in the southeastern Chinese province of Anhui, the joint research team came up with a new technology to reduce the energy intensity of the heat pulses to a fraction of what they had been.

This meant the pulses would occur more frequently but not reach far enough to risk burning the reactor wall. The scientists have dubbed this controlled state “grassy mode”.

The unprecedented experiment in Hefei was carried out by the Institute of Plasma Physics, part of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, with three fusion research entities from the US: the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, General Atomics and Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory.

A lead scientist in the study, Professor Xu Guosheng – director of the tokamak physics division at the Institute of Plasma Physics – said the achievement was a result of long-term collaboration backed by the world’s two most powerful governments.

“We have been working very closely for decades. [The US team] just came over and played soccer with us,” Xu said. In May, China and the US marked the 30th anniversary of fusion research collaboration in Hefei, and the celebration events included soccer matches.

The trade war “has not affected us at all”, he added.

Next month, a team of Chinese fusion experts will go to San Diego, where part of their mission will be to replicate the experiment on the DIII-D, the largest magnetic fusion research facility in the United States. If that is successful, the “grassy mode” may become a standard protocol of operation for all fusion reactors in the future.

The control centre for the Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak. Photo: Reuters

General Atomics, a contractor operating the DIII-D facility for the US departments of energy and defence, confirmed the collaboration.

“The research teams on EAST and DIII-D actively collaborate on fusion research topics,” the company said in a statement on Thursday.

“These collaborations have benefited the fusion energy communities in both countries, with DIII-D receiving new hardware built by the Chinese, EAST researchers receiving dedicated experimental time on DIII-D to carry out targeted research, and both teams working together on experiments on DIII-D and EAST,” the company said.

It is highly unusual for a major US defence contractor to hail a Chinese-American collaboration. General Atomics develops and produces a large number of cutting-edge weapons, such as railguns, laser weapons and some of the world’s deadliest drones, including the MQ-1 Predator and MQ-9 Reaper.

The company said the China-US collaboration was part of a much larger global fusion research programme involving more than 40 nations, to develop the physics basis for fusion as an energy source. This global partnership has been active for over 60 years since the declassification of magnetic fusion research in 1958.

“Within this global endeavour, the EAST/DIII-D collaboration continues to be highly productive in delivering important results and numerous scientific publications,” the company added.

Broader developments between the two countries had threatened some of their scientific collaborations.

While their Chinese counterparts working in the US have been encountering visa complications
, some American scientists with ties in China have faced investigation in the US, with some losing their jobs at unusually short notice.

Last August, the White House initiated a strict ban on the transfer of nuclear-related technology to China, and some joint ventures – including Bill Gates’ plan to build a new type of nuclear reactor in Tianjin, in northern China – were put on hold.

Professor Chen Yiping, another fusion scientist with the Institute of Plasma Physics in Hefei, said the achievement of “grassy mode” was an important step, but there were many other challenges ahead.

The EAST facility, for instance, holds the world record for the longest plasma burning, at 100 seconds. The DIII-D facility can maintain burning for only 10 seconds. A commercial fusion reactor, though, would require continuous operation for years or even decades, according to Chen.

“Fusion is an uphill battle. The only chance to win is to unite as many talents and resources as possible,” he said.

Professor Xu said China and the US would “certainly” compete on fusion energy in the future, when the technology becomes ready for commercial applications.

“But that may be decades away,” he said. “Until then, we will remain partners.”

 

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Scientists develop predictive model of hydrogen-nanovoid interaction
Source: Xinhua| 2019-07-17 18:19:22|Editor: mingmei

HEFEI, July 17 (Xinhua) -- Chinese and Canadian scientists have developed a predictive model for hydrogen trapping and bubbling in nanovoids, which is crucial to the understanding of hydrogen-induced damage in structural materials.

Hydrogen, the most abundant element in existence, is a highly anticipated fuel for fusion reactions and thus an important focus of study. However, it can easily penetrate metal surfaces through the gaps between metal atoms and causes damage.

"The interplay between hydrogen and nanovoids has long been recognized as a key factor in hydrogen-induced damage in structural materials, yet it remains poorly understood," said Wu Xuebang, a researcher from the Institute of Solid State Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences.

Based on fundamental quantum mechanics, the research team proposed using computer simulations to tackle the problem. After five years of efforts, the researchers, in cooperation with a Canadian team, have established a predictive model for quantitative determination of the configurations and energetics of hydrogen adatoms in nanovoids.

Hou Jie, the first author of the research paper, said that their model offers mechanistic insights for evaluating hydrogen-induced damage in nuclear fusion reactors, thus paving the way for harvesting fusion energy in the future.

The study was published in the latest issue of Nature Materials.

 

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JULY 18, 2019 / 4:16 PM / UPDATED 7 MINUTES AGO
China launches small reactor project in push for nuclear dominance - Reuters

SHANGHAI (Reuters) - China has started building its first small modular reactor (SMR) project on the island province of Hainan, the state-owned China National Nuclear Corporation (CNNC) said on Thursday, as part of the country’s efforts to diversify its nuclear sector.

The project was originally scheduled to go into construction in 2017. The company did not say when the project was likely to be completed.

The country’s first demonstration SMR at the Changjiang nuclear facility in Hainan will be used to “verify the design, manufacture, construction and operation of the technology and accumulate valuable experience in small nuclear power plants,” CNNC said in a notice.

China hopes the reactor - “Linglong One” - will eventually stand alongside its bigger third-generation “Hualong One” model as it bids to export its advanced nuclear technologies and build projects overseas.

SMRs are around a third of the size of conventional reactors and can be used in the remote countryside, shipped to islands and plugged into existing grid infrastructure. They are also expected to be used in China for urban heating and desalination projects.

The State Power Investment Corporation said last month that it was planning to build a small-scale pilot heating reactor in the northeastern city of Jiamusi, with the aim of putting it into operation by 2024.

China’s ambitious reactor-building plans have been held back by its decision to rely on larger, safer but untested “third-generation” reactor designs, which are costly and have long construction time.

The world’s first AP1000, designed by U.S.-based Westinghouse, finally went into operation at Sanmen on China’s eastern coast last year, some four years behind schedule. The world’s first EPR, designed by France’s Areva, also went into operation in China last December.

China is expected to complete its first reactor using its own domestic Hualong One technology by the end of next year, ahead of schedule.

Reporting by David Stanway, Editing by Sherry Jacob-Phillips

 

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China Nuclear Power-Led Group Wins Core Deal in ITER, World's Biggest Fusion Reactor
XU WEI
DATE : JUL 19 2019/SOURCE : YICAI

China Nuclear Power-Led Group Wins Core Deal in ITER, World's Biggest Fusion Reactor​

(Yicai Global) July 19 -- France's International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor, the world's largest fusion experiment participated by various countries including the US and India, has chosen an international consortium led by China Nuclear Power Engineering to install the core equipment close to the reactor, which will become the first large international nuclear project for China.

China National Nuclear, the parent of CNPE, received a notice about winning the engineering, procurement and construction bid regarding the Tokamak Assembly Contract No. 01, TAC1, Science and Technology Daily reported yesterday.

ITER, located in southern France, may be the world's most complex science project as the reactor has more than 10 million parts. The European Union, Russia and South Korea are some of the nations that have joined hands to build the massive nuclear plant over a decade.

TAC1 is ITER's largest contract to date, and it has uttermost importance in terms of testing the tokamak, a magnetic fusion device, Wen Jingwu, CNPE's senior engineer and head of TAC1 work told the same newspaper. The consortium will install a cryostat and connecting systems, designed to cool down the reactor.

The deal marks the first for a Chinese company in terms of big nuclear EPC contracts abroad, said the Beijing-based firm's vice general manager Li Qiang.

The consortium consists of France's Framatome, CNNC's Southwestern Institute of Physics, China Nuclear Industry 23 Construction, Institute of Plasma Physics under the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

 

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Russia and China sign fuel contract for new Tianwan units
23 July 2019

TVEL, the nuclear fuel manufacturer subsidiary of Russia's Rosatom, has signed a supply contract for units 7 and 8 of the Tianwan nuclear power plant in China's Jiangsu province. The customers are Suneng Nuclear Power Corporation and China Nuclear Energy Industry Corporation, which are both subsidiaries of China National Nuclear Corporation (CNNC).

Chinese and Russian delegates at the signing ceremony in Nizhny Novgorod (Image: TVEL)​

The contract signing ceremony took place in Nizhny Novgorod, in the Volga region of Russia, in the presence of Alexey Likhachov, Rosatom director general, and Zhang Kejian, chairman of China Atomic Energy Authority, at the 23rd session of the Chinese-Russian Subcommittee on Nuclear Issues.

The agreement includes supplies for the first core as well as for further refuelling, envisaging an option of payments in the national currencies of Russia and China, TVEL said. Rusatom Overseas, another Rosatom subsidiary, coordinated the contract negotiations from the Russian side. The value of the contract and the size of the fuel were not disclosed.

The two new Russian-design units at Tianwan will be powered by VVER-1200 reactors. At present, Tianwan NPP has four VVER-1000 units running on nuclear fuel produced either by Novosibirsk Chemical Concentrate Plant, part of TVEL, or by Yibin fuel plant, from Sichuan province, where fabrication of fuel assemblies for VVER-1000 is localiced under licence with TVEL.

"Since the first unit’s commissioning at Tianwan NPP in 2006, TVEL has been not just supplying nuclear fuel to the customer, but also providing comprehensive support introducing the best Russian practices," Oleg Grigoriyev, TVEL’s senior vice president for commerce and international business, said.

In particular, he said, TVEL engineers have enabled switching the VVER-1000 units to new-generation TVS-2M fuel and have also helped to launch the Russian-design nuclear fuel fabrication facility at the Yibin plant.

The general contract has been signed for Tianwan Phase IV was signed in March by AtomStroyExport, Rosatom’s engineering division, and CNNC.

Rosatom said the contracts had been prepared in accordance with the strategic package of agreements signed during a visit by Russian President Vladimir Putin to China in June last year. Those agreements included the construction of two VVER-1200 reactors as units 7 and 8 of the Tianwan plant, as well as two VVER-1200 units to be built at the new Xudabao site. Contracts for Tianwan 7 and 8 were signed between CNNC and Rosatom in early November marking the implementation of the framework contracts.


Researched and written by World Nuclear News


http://www.world-nuclear-news.org/Articles/Russia-and-China-sign-fuel-contract-for-new-Tianwa

 

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China National Nuclear Takes Control of Major Global Rossing Uranium Mine in Namibia
LIAO SHUMIN
DATE : JUL 26 2019/SOURCE : YICAI

China National Nuclear Takes Control of Major Global Rossing Uranium Mine in Namibia​

(Yicai Global) July 26 -- China National Nuclear has taken over Namibia's Rossing Uranium Mine, one of the largest open-pit uranium mines in the world, in a deal worth up to USD106.5 million.

CNNC and London-headquartered Rio Tinto held the handover ceremony in Namibia yesterday, the Beijing-based company said on its WeChat account yesterday.

CNNC will support the steady operation of the mine and bring tax revenue and employment to the southern African country, it added.

Last November, China National Uranium, a subsidiary of CNNC, penned an agreement with Rio Tinto about buying a nearly 67 percent stake in the mine for up to USD106.5 million, including USD6.5 million paid immediately as well as up to USD100 million later if the mine's net income meets CNNC's expectations in the coming seven years, China Securities Journal reported earlier. The Namibian government approved the equity transfer on June 21.

The Rossing project was put into operation in 1976 and it is the world's longest-running open-pit uranium mine. In 2017, its output was 4.6 million pounds (about 2,100 tons) of the dense metal that is primarily used to produce electricity in nuclear reactors.

 

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China Breaks Nuclear Freeze by Splurging USD12.1 Billion to Build Two Hualong One Plants
TANG SHIHUA
DATE : MAR 19 2019/SOURCE : YICAI

China Breaks Nuclear Freeze by Splurging USD12.1 Billion to Build Two Hualong One Plants​

(Yicai Global) March 19 -- China's central environmental authority has given the green light for the construction of two nuclear power projects with four reactors, which is the first such go-ahead since 2016.

The pair, China General Nuclear Power Group's Huizhou Taiping Ling in southern Guangdong province and China National Nuclear's Zhangzhou plant in southeastern Fujian, will start construction on June 30, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment said in a statement on its website. The total investment will be CNY81.2 billion (USD12.1 billion), public information shows.

The Chinese government imposed a multi-year freeze on new nuclear power projects since the accident at the tsunami-struck nuclear plant in Fukushima, Japan in 2011.

In 2015, China began building two plants involving domestically designed Hualong One reactor technology in Fujian province and the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, with the first unit expected to enter operation in 2020.

Energy authority rejigs 3 nuclear power plants
By Wang Qi Source:Global Times Published: 2019/7/28 22:08:39

The dome is being installed at No. 3 unit of Fangchenggang Nuclear Power Plant, a demonstration nuclear power project using Hualong One technology, a domestically developed third-generation reactor design, in Fangchenggang city, southwest China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, 23 May 2018. Photo: IC

China's National Energy Administration disclosed Thursday that it has approved three nuclear power projects in three coastal cities after a three-year hiatus.

Chinese industry insiders said the new technology with the world's highest safety level and efficiency will be applied to those projects.

Hualong One technology, an independently developed third generation of Chinese nuclear technology, is expected to take China's nuclear technology above world level by 2020, they said.

One of the three newly approved projects based in Rongcheng county of East China's Shandong Province is already under construction, reported Shanghai-based news portal thepaper.cn.

The other two in South China's Guangdong Province and Southeast China's Fujian Province are poised to start immediately, according to the report.

China's electricity reserves are always abundant, Lin Boqiang, director of the China Center for Energy Economics Research at Xiamen University, told the Global Times on Sunday.

"But excess electricity has been used up in the past three years so we need to launch new projects," Lin said.

China is one of the world's largest energy consumers, making nuclear power important, Han Xiaoping, chief analyst at energy industry website china5e.com, told the Global Times on Sunday.

Hualong One technology makes China more confident about nuclear safety, Han noted.

After the 2011 disaster at the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant, China paused to increase the safety and technological perfection of nuclear power, Han said.

With approval for the three projects, the technology would be constantly reviewed, the nuclear power insider noted.

China National Nuclear Corp (CNNC) issued an announcement introducing the nuclear project in Zhangzhou and invited public comment.

According to the announcement, CNNC Zhangzhou branch evaluated the environmental and residential impact of the three-month, 10 million ($1.45 million) yuan project.

Site selection began in 2006 for the Taipingling nuclear power project in Huizhou, the fifth nuclear project in South China's Guangdong Province, said thepaper.cn.

China's last nuclear power project dates back to 2015, when eight regular nuclear power units were constructed.

The Chinese mainland had 45 nuclear power units in commercial operation, with an installed capacity of 45,895 megawatts of electricity, according to data released March 31 by the China Nuclear Energy Association.

 

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Yangjiang nuclear station put into full use to feed demand for cleaner energy in Greater Bay Area
Source:Global Times Published: 2019/8/8 18:08:40

The world's biggest light pressurized water reactor nuclear station, built by the China General Nuclear Power Group (CGNPG), has been put into commercial operation, according to a statement sent to the Global Times on Thursday.

The new station is expected to provide energy to the Hong Kong and Macao Special Administrative Regions (SARs) as their electricity demand jumps with industry restructuring, experts said.

According to the report, the Yangjiang station was put into use after its No.6 nuclear unit successfully completed 168 hours of full-load demonstration operation. The station has six nuclear generators, each with a capacity of more than 1 million kilowatts, and is capable of generating up to 48 billion kilowatt-hours annually.

That amount is equivalent to the electricity that a medium-size developing country needs for a year, Han Xiaoping, chief analyst at energy industry website china5e.com, told the Global Times.

The other five nuclear units of the station started operating as early as 2014. As of June 30, the Yangjiang station had produced 120 billion kilowatt hours of on-grid electricity, eliminating more than 100 million tons of carbon dioxide emissions.

"China's technology in nuclear power generation is leading the world," Hans said.

The Yangjiang station's No.1 and No.2 units are equipped with the CPR1000 technology, a Generation-II pressurized water reactor built by CGNPG that also incorporates the Generation-III French EPR nuclear energy technology.

The No.3 and No.4 units use CPR1000+ technology, an improved and localized version of the CPR1000 that's more similar to third-generation technology. Both the No.5 and No.6 units feature ACPR1000 technology, encompassing most features of third-generation nuclear power technology.

The average use of domestic technology in the six units has reached 83 percent, with that of the most essential equipment exceeding 85 percent.

With its immense capacity to generate electricity, the Yangjiang station is expected to provide energy for South China's Guangdong Province as well as the Macao and Hong Kong SARs.

"The station's location near the cluster of booming cities in South China implies that it's not just meant to support Guangdong Province, but also Hong Kong and Macao," Han noted.

"The area has been one of the biggest three consumers of electricity in China because of its huge manufacturing industry. But as the economy focuses more on technology, it will have an even bigger demand for electricity that only new-energy sources can provide without damaging the environment," Han said.

According to a report by the Xinhua News Agency, as of 2018, a total of 10 third-generation nuclear power units had been built or were under construction in China, accounting for one-third of the global total.

 

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China science & technology news summary -- Aug. 14
Source: Xinhua| 2019-08-14 14:24:15|Editor: huaxia


BEIJING, Aug. 14 (Xinhua) -- The following is a summary of published science and technology news of China.

FUSION EXPERIMENTAL DEVICE

A medium-sized spherical tokamak fusion experiment device, ENN XL-50, has been built in north China's Hebei Province and conducted its first plasma discharge.

The ENN XL-50, designed and manufactured by the ENN Group, is an experiment to study high-temperature plasmas that are confined by magnetic fields. Its construction began in October 2018.

 

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Pakistan Nuclear Power Plant Project With China's Hualong One Technology Puts Dome on Main Structure
DOU SHICONG
DATE : JUN 18 2019/SOURCE : YICAI

Pakistan Nuclear Power Plant Project With China's Hualong One Technology Puts Dome on Main Structure​

(Yicai Global) June 18 -- Pakistan's Karachi Nuclear Power Plant, the first overseas project adopting China's home-grown third-generation Hualong One pressurized water reactor nuclear power technology, completed the engineering of its main structure yesterday.

The 366-ton dome of the K-2 unit's outer safety shell was successfully hoisted into place on the Karachi K-2 Nuclear Power Plant yesterday, online news outlet Huanqiu reported.

The plant will conduct general and thermal testing of this security housing in the project's next phase, per the report.

China National Nuclear contracted Pakistan's K-2 and K-3 nuclear power plant projects, and the Beijing-based company is now building four demonstration projects under construction both at home and abroad that apply the Hualong One technology.

PWRs comprise most of the world's nuclear power plants. Water in a PWR is pumped under high pressure to a reactor core where the energy released by atomic fission heats it. It then flows to a steam generator where it delivers its thermal energy to a secondary system which produces steam that flows to turbines which turn a dynamo.

From CNNC, main pump of Karachi-2 installed on 23rd Aug.

 

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RF Ion Source Achieves High Power Plasma Discharge with Long Pulse of 1000s
Aug 27, 2019

Chinese scientists have realized the long pulse of 1000s plasma discharge with RF power of 82 kW, marking a new milestone in the development of China's high power radio frequency (RF) ion source.

The large area RF ion source is one of the key parts of neutral beam injector on fusion device. The research and development of RF ion source involves many disciplines, such as precision machinofacture, physics of RF plasma, RF power transmission and matching, RF power coupling and feedback control of plasma discharge.

The R&D team of ion source in neutral beam injection division of Institute of Plasma Physics, Hefei Institute of Physical Science of Chinese Academy of Sciences, has solved a number of bottleneck problems, and developed a large area RF ion source to achieve long pulse plasma discharge of 1000s with high power of 82kW for the first time.

They believe that this may lay a good foundation for the development of high power RF ion source.


RF Ion Source Achieves High Power Plasma Discharge with Long Pulse of 1000s---Chinese Academy of Sciences

 

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World's Highest Frequency Thomson Scattering Diagnostic with Single Laser Developed
Aug 30, 2019

China has realized the world's highest frequency Thomson scattering diagnostic with single laser as it had passed its acceptance test very recently, according to the research team with Institute of Plasma Physics, Hefei Institutes of Physical Science.

The newly developed diagnostic system could realize simultaneous measurement of plasma electron temperature (Te) and density (ne) in 4 kHz YAG laser UHF mode (10 pulses) and 100 Hz YAG laser continuous mode. Up to now, it is the world's highest frequency Thomson scattering diagnostic with single laser.

Te and ne profile are important parameters for the fusion devices as well as physics research. Laser Thomson Scattering Diagnosis obtains the experimental data of Te and ne by the shape and intensity of the scattering spectrum of electrons under the action of laser, respectively, which already had been recognized as most reliable diagnostic to get Te and ne by world due to its simple principle.

At the same time, It is also a diagnostic tool for priority development of fusion devices across the world, including ITER, Since Thomson scattering diagnostic needs to analyze the scattering spectrum of photon produced by laser and electronic in magnitude nanosecond time, which is considered as one of the most difficult diagnoses in fusion plasma physics research, this diagnostic system is in very high demand for laser and detection technology on weak and fast signal. Unfortunately, only a few countries have the capability to conduct such kind of researches.

For EAST, with high parameter and long pulse as its target, electron temperature above 100 million degrees must be accurately measured by Thomson scattering diagnostic, but the electron scattering spectrum is pretty wider and weaker than usual.

In order to obtain high-precision signal, the system laser and detector have to make higher requirements to consider fast physical processes and to maintain a stable running time of over 1000 seconds.

To face the challenge, the team has continuously focused on laser and detection technology, and managed to develop the Thomson scattering diagnosis system with ultra-high spatial and temporal resolution.

Moreover, the research team put forward a series of pulse method and carried out technical research, and obtained a distinctive 4kHz/3J YAG pulse laser. By solving the beam split of high performance scattering light, detection of Infrared weak fast signal, high-speed acquisition, high efficiency laser transmission and automatic collimation key technical problems, the system had implemented in the EAST device for the Whole-space measurement of electron temperature density distribution with space 45 points, the highest time resolution of 250 μS, high spatial resolution of 3 mm , electron temperature and density error respectively less than 10% and 15% . This marks the highest frequency YAG Thomson scattering diagnostic system realized by one laser device in the world

Meanwhile, the system performed so well in other main technical indicators, especially the 4kHz high power laser has far exceeded the tens of Hertz which commonly used in mainstream devices and the 300Hz laser being developed for ITER.

This work was supported by "Dynamic Response of Key Distribution Parameters of Plasma to External Power on EAST", "Fine structure of boundary transport barrier under H-mode on EAST" of the National magnetic confinement nuclear fusion energy development research project and National Nature Science Foundation Project. It has been successfully implemented and provided important data support for 100 seconds H-mode discharge on EAST and 10keV Te of plasma discharge, etc.

High Frequency and High Energy YAG Laser (Image by HU Ailan)

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Signal Collection System (Image by HU Ailan)


World's Highest Frequency Thomson Scattering Diagnostic with Single Laser Developed---Chinese Academy of Sciences

 

[JSCh]

World's second EPR nuclear reactor starts work in China
Date created : 29/05/2019 - 11:00

The two EPR reactors at the Taishan nuclear power plant will be the most powerful in the world when fully completed and can supply five million Chinese users, its owners say AFP/File

Paris (AFP)

A next-generation EPR nuclear reactor in China has carried out its first chain reaction, French energy giant EDF announced Wednesday, becoming the second using the much-delayed European technology to reach the milestone.

The fission reaction at the Taishan 2 reactor on Tuesday follows the Taishan 1 becoming last year the first of its kind to advance to the operational stage.

"The nuclear reaction was authorised and yesterday the Chinese reactor carried out a fission reaction for the first time," EDF chairman and CEO Jean-Bernard Levy told Europe 1 radio on Wednesday.

EDF, which helped design the European Pressurised Reactor (EPR), is a minority shareholder in the Taishan project, which is a joint venture with China's state-run CGN and regional Chinese utility Yuedian.

The first nuclear fuel was loaded into the Taishan 2 reactor in early May in the southern Chinese province of Guangdong.

Levy said that Taishan 1, which in December became the first EPR to enter into commercial service, was "working very well".

The two EPR reactors at the Taishan nuclear power plant will be the most powerful in the world when fully completed and will be able to supply five million Chinese users, the companies have said.

EPR reactors -- which use a pressurised water design -- promise advances in safety and efficiency over conventional reactors while producing less waste.

But EDF has faced serious problems rolling out the technology and has managed to sell just a handful of the reactors as construction problems piled up.

EDF has been building an EPR reactor at Flamanville along the Atlantic coast of northwest France. It was originally set to go online in 2012 but the project has been plagued by technical problems and budget overruns.

Levy acknowledged that the "difficulty" of the Flamanville project had been "underestimated."

French President Emmanuel Macron has asked EDF to study the feasibility of building more next-generation EPR nuclear reactors in the country, but will wait until 2021 before deciding whether to proceed with construction.

? 2019 AFP


https://www.france24.com/en/20190529-worlds-second-epr-nuclear-reactor-starts-work-china

China-France JV's second nuclear power unit ready for commercial use
Source: Xinhua| 2019-09-07 22:30:11|Editor: Li Xia

SHENZHEN, Sept. 7 (Xinhua) -- A third-generation nuclear power unit of a China-France joint venture in southern Guangdong Province has completed all the testing operations and is ready for commercial use, said China General Nuclear Power Corporation (CGN) Saturday.

The No.2 unit at the Taishan nuclear power plant will be the world's second third-generation European Pressurized Reactor (EPR) nuclear power unit, said CGN, the largest nuclear power operator in China. The No. 1 unit, which was put into commercial use in December last year, was the first of its kind.

The Taishan nuclear power plant, the largest Sino-French project in the energy field, uses the EPR for its No.1 and No. 2 power units, with a unit capacity of 1.75 million kilowatts each.

The power plant is run by a joint venture set up by CGN, French energy supplier Electricite de France (EDF), and Guangdong Energy Group Co., Ltd.

Construction of the reactor for the No.2 power unit began in 2010 and the unit was linked to the grid on June 23.

It is estimated that about 8.03 million tonnes of standard coal will be saved, with over 21.09 million tonnes of carbon emissions cut upon the completion of the two units.